Rear axle alignment??

[Yellojacket05]

Hello all. I am new member and have recently purchased my first z-car, a 75 280z. I bought it with a rear suspension problem, that I am having troulbe figuring out. Basically the car was hit lightly on the passenger side rim and this bent the "drivers" side wheel out several inches. The passenger side looks fine. I cannot see where anything is broken, bent, etc. Could an alignment fix something thats 2-3 inches out or is there a likely candidate for a bent cradle or bracket of some kind??

The car will drive like this, but tracks sides because one wheel is bent inward. The axles look straight out to the hub and turn freely.

Anybody have any ideas on where to start?? I have attached a few pics.

[beandip]

You need to take it to a frame shop and see what is what. If you are lucky it is repairable. Not knowing any more info , this is the best I can offer. It could involve the replacement of all the rear suspension . As long as the body is still straight. Sorry , Gary:( By the way welcome to the group.

[74-26Ounce]

I suppose if the rubbers in the inner transverse link mounts aren’t right, it would have an alignment problem but I can't imagine it would be a couple of inches. This may sound silly but I have seen it once before; are the wheels the same offset? Maybe the previous owner had replaced a rim with a different offset? (I had a friend with an EH Holden that was hitting the guard on 1 side, the problem turned out to be that the tyre place put the wheel on backwards)

[jmortensen]

Take it to an alignment shop and have them give you a printout of where the alignment is. If one rear wheel is toed in an inch, and the other is straight ahead, then I'm pretty sure I know what it is. You have to be a little careful, though, because the body kind of tapers at the back which adds to the toe in illusion.

It is becoming fairly common to find one wheel really badly toed in, and the reason is usually a badly manufactured strut. What seems to be happening is that the hole for the spindle pin is bored at an angle. Seen it maybe 5 times over at hybridz.org in the last few years. Most guys just replace the bad strut, and that fixes the problem.

Here are some examples:

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=98898

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=95947

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=93486

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=85701

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=70723

[Yellojacket05]

Thanks, looks like the strut alignment or bracket may be the problem. The Strut is definetly not centered in the body compared to the passengers side. Now, how hard is it to replace this? It looks like everything hooks together there.

[jmortensen]

If it isn't too bad then you might be able to adjust it out with a GMachine bushing so you still might want to take it in and have the alignment measured. Here's a link to the GMachine bushings: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/PSDC07A

Easiest thing to do is get a new strut and control arm combo already hooked together. Disconnecting these two pieces requires removal of the spindle pin, which is a real PITA (search, you'll see what I mean). You'd be shocked at how easy it is to get the suspension off of the car if you don't disassemble everything. Where are you located? I think Mat_M my brother-in-law has a couple near Sacramento, CA.